Backstage Sydney Opera House Tour and Taronga Zoo

Enjoy two incredible experiences on the combined Backstage Sydney Opera House Tour and Taronga Zoo excursion.

The day starts when you take a privileged peek behind scenes at the renowned Sydney Opera House. The meeting point for the tour is the Stage Door, located on the vehicle concourse at Sydney Opera House. The tour begins at 0700h (7.00 am) each morning, ensuring visitors can access the inner sanctum areas that are restricted later in the day when performers and technical crews are at work. Please aim to arrive at 0645h (6.45am) at the Stage Door to check in and receive pre-tour instructions.

You will set off with your English-speaking guide to discover the inner secrets of the magnificent Opera House. You will enter the private domain of the performers and their minders and will have the chance to tread the boards on the world-famous Concert Hall or Opera Theatre.

Just imagine – you can stand on stage where legends like Bryn Terfel, Dame Joan Sutherland and Rudolph Nureyev have performed! Or, if you’ve secretly envied the conductor his role, you could stride through the orchestra pit like a maestro and step up onto the podium, baton in hand!

You will get the chance to relax in the star’s dressing room – complete with Steinway Grand Piano – and can also visit less glamorous parts of the building, such as the precincts of the stagehands and crew, including the scenery dock and fly towers.

Your guide can share insider stories about titans like Pavarotti, Dame Joan Sutherland, Michael Bublé, as well as other (somewhat less famous) performers like the Australian Idol crew!

Around 0830h (8.30 am), you will be taken to the Green Room or canteen, normally reserved for performers and staff. Here a choice of hot (Australian-style) or cold (continental) breakfast is served and there is time to take in the atmosphere as well as ask the guide any further questions.

On Sundays and public holidays the Green Room is closed and a continental breakfast will be served in the Sidewalk Café.

After breakfast, you should make your own way to the Man O’ War Steps to catch a water taxi. To get to the Steps you go left out of the stage door and down to the jetty just in front of the Botanic Gardens. The water taxi will arrive here at 0930h (9.30 am).

At 0940h (9.40 am), you will reach Taronga Zoo jetty. When you arrive at the Zoo, please advise the admissions staff that you have booked a Taronga's Wild Experience Tour.

Take the Sky Safari (cable car) to the top of the Zoo, enjoying stunning views on the way, and make your way to the Top Information Centre, located in the Top Entry Plaza. Advise the guides you have come for the 1000h (10.00 am) Taronga's Wild Experience Tour. Please ensure you arrive at least 5 minutes prior to tour departure time.

Your Wild Experience is led by a zookeeper and enables you to have a hands-on, behind- the-scenes encounter with Australian wildlife. This is a small-group tour with no more than eight people.

During the tour keeper will explain the special adaptations of unique Aussie animals, which enable them to live in harmony with the Australian environment.

Activities on the tour vary with the season but you might find yourself doing some or all of the following:

• A photo-op with cuddly koalas in their enclosure.

• Hand-feeding kangaroos and wallabies.

• Seeing how food for the animals is prepared.

• Encounters with nocturnal creatures in the Australia's Nightlife house.

• Meeting some hand-raised native animals.

The tour ends at 1130h (11.30 am). Afterwards, you can enjoy morning tea in the Tree Tops Cafe. You are then invited to stay on at Taronga to visit the various exhibits and enjoy more wonderful experiences.

When you are ready to leave the Zoo, you can take another ride on the Sky Safari for more splendid views on your way down to Taronga Zoo Wharf. You can then catch a ferry back to Circular Quay, Sydney. (Your ferry ticket is included in the tour price.) The excursion ends at Circular Quay, Sydney.